1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to surveillance systems, and to a TV-type surveillance system particularly adapted to be employed in a retail store having a number of checkout stations, or in an industrial or public establishment having multiple discrete regions or continuous regions to be observed without notice.
2. General Description of the Prior Art
The business need of surveillance of retail and industrial sales establishments to prevent losses is well established. Thievery in such establishments is estimated to total at least $3 billion per year in the U.S. alone. This in turn results in greater costs of merchandise to everyone. In recognition of this problem, television cameras have been mounted at strategic locations within an establishment and have proved beneficial at reducing thievery. The difficulty with existing such systems is that they lack the versatility to fully effectively monitor store operations. At this point, it is well to note the expanded need for surveillance which goes beyond shoplifting and includes monitoring of employees entering and leaving; employee performance and efficiency; thefts through rear doors of an establishment by employees, delivery people, and others; and perhaps most urgently needed is surveillance of checkout operations to ascertain that proper amounts are registered for merchandise. For example, it is estimated that in a 12-register "front end" where each register has a weekly volume of $8,000 and a gross volume of $384,000 per year, there will occur a startling "shrink loss", as it is called, of $5,760 by virtue of failure to fully charge for merchandise. This is based upon a national average of 11/2 percent loss.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved closed circuit television surveillance system which provides for operation which goes far beyond that previously available from such systems, largely shoplifting, and to enable coverage of other vital areas of concern.
It is a further object of this invention to generally expand the capability and versatility of such surveillance systems.